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Colorado State men's team records one for the books

CSU's Iverson, Green dominant in win at Wyoming

By Sean Star Sports Writer

Posted:
03/07/2013 09:18:25 PM MST

Colorado State's Greg Smith, left, and Colton Iverson pressure Wyoming's Larry Nance, Jr., right, during the first half of the Rams' win at the Arena-Auditorium in Laramie, Wyo. Iverson, who scored a career-best 29 points on 12-for-12 shooting, is the only player in Mountain West averaging a double-double in league play.
(AP Photo/The Casper Star-Tribune, Alan Rogers)

Colorado State's 78-56 win at Wyoming on Wednesday wasn't just the best the Rams have played this season, as coach Larry Eustachy said afterward. It was also a record-setting night for CSU in Laramie.

Colton Iverson's perfect 12-for-12 shooting performance for a career-best 29 points tied Billy White's Mountain West single-game record for the most makes without a miss. It was also the first time any Division I player was perfect on at least a dozen field-goal attempts since December 2010.

The 6-foot-10 senior center was far too much for an undermanned Wyoming squad, as Iverson scored 20 first-half points to lead the Rams (23-7, 10-5 MW) to a comfortable 15-point lead at halftime (47-32) that was never reduced to fewer than 12 in the second half.

The transfer from Minnesota has been a force throughout his first and only season as a Ram, putting himself in the conversation for MW player of the year consideration as the only player in the conference to average a double-double (14.1 ppg, 10.2 rpg) in league play. He's been so dominant, in fact, that his perfect shooting effort nearly went unnoticed by one of his teammates.

"I didn't even know he was doing that until towards the end of the game," said senior guard Dorian Green, who scored 18 points and had three assists. "But he played great; he was active on the boards and is just continuing to play better and better. He's special. We give him the ball, and we expect him to score every single time. When he's active like that, he's tough to stop."

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More often than not this season Eustachy has closed his post-game comments with a mention of how much better he thinks his team can still get. And on Wednesday, his players showed why. The Rams' 22-point margin of victory was the program's largest in a road game since a 74-46 romping at San Diego State back in 2000.

"I thought we took it to another level tonight that I've been talking about since I stepped in front of the podium," said Eustachy, whose team needs to win Saturday's regular-season finale against Nevada to clinch at least a 3 seed for next week's conference tournament.

"I thought it was just about us tonight. We came out in a big rivalry on somebody's court in a tough situation, and I thought Colton was as focused as he's been all year. And that kind of mirrors our team tonight."

Green also reached a significant milestone, becoming the program's all-time leader in games played with a 126 -- all starts -- to pass pervious recorder-holder Pat Durham. Green also vaulted ahead of Barry Young into sixth-place on the school's all-time scoring list (1,427) with his 12th double-digit scoring game in the team's past 13 contests.

After going just 3-9 on the road a season ago, the Rams capped their road record for 2012-13 at 6-6, including a 4-4 mark in the MW, something Eustachy said "men have to do."

The four conference road wins are part of a record 10 MW wins the team now has, the most ever for a CSU men's squad in the 14-year history of the conference.

"Road games are tough, and they're huge as far as your resume and stuff like that," said Green, one of five CSU seniors who will look to set a school record for the most wins in a season on Saturday's senior night. "It's something that we've talked about all year, especially because of our lack of success previously. I think it's a good win for us."

NOTABLE -- Sophomore guard Daniel Bejarano played just 4 minutes Wednesday before spraining his ACL, which caused him to sit the rest of the night. "Who knows how long he's out," Eustachy said. ... Iverson came up limping after making a short jumper midway through the second half. He had ice on his knee after the game but said it was nothing serious. ... CSU's five seniors won't be recognized until after Saturday's tilt with Nevada, a game in which another program record could fall: the most victories in a season at Moby Arena. Currently the team's 15 home wins are tied atop the list with the 1988 team.

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